I shared the wisdom that an older woman gave to me in my last blog, which helped me realize that God speaks personally to His people through His word. She warned me against following the “inner monologue,” and encouraged me to ask God for a verse instead. Although, some verses quickly come to mind, or stand out when reading the bible, it’s important to know what it means. Jill was very deliberate in highlighting that truth, but how do we do that?
Context
I had a pastor tell me once that if you take the bible “text” out of “context” you are left with a “con.” It’s a cute little phrase, but I’m starting to believe that it’s very true, and very destructive if neglected. The reason is because even Satan quoted the bible in an attempt to trick Jesus into doing something evil. Jesus obviously cannot be tricked, but humans can. In fact, I’ve been tricked.
The biggest trick that Satan played on me involved my relationship with God. I think I memorized only a couple verses when I was younger, and my favorite was “everything is permissible…”
I don’t know how well you know your bible, but that’s not a verse; it’s only part of a verse. I used those words apart from their original context in order to justify my rebellion and sin. I remember getting to the point where I believed that God didn’t care about my actions, so I didn’t either. I thank God for helping me realize my error, and I’ll explain why later. First, I want to look at the verse in context in order to show where I went wrong.
The verse I am referring to is 1 Corinthians 10:23
"Everything is permissible"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"--but not everything is constructive.
Just by looking at the whole verse, it’s pretty clear that Paul (the writer of 1 Corinthians) didn’t intend for people in the 21st century to use his words as an excuse to sin. Deep down, I knew that, and I also knew that some of the choices I made in college weren’t beneficial or constructive. Even though doctors, parents, even some of my friends told me that my choices where stupid and harmful, I kept saying, “everything’s permissible.”
I wonder if things would have been different if I read the verse in context of the whole chapter, book, culture, or bible as a whole…
I ask that question, because chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians begins with Paul’s explanation that God’s people in the past suffered consequences for their sins as a warning for us in the future. God wanted to prevent His people from craving evil. Paul continues by urging believers to refrain from sexual immorality, and idolatry. In fact, it’s not until the end of the chapter that Paul teaches Christians that God allows them to eat meat. That’s right, meat. Paul wasn’t saying that it’s okay to sin; Paul was telling Christians that they can eat meat if they want! That’s a big difference than the way I used the verse, but it raises a new question:
Why would Paul need to teach people in Corinth (hence the name “1 Corinthians”) that it’s permissible to eat meat anyways?
To answer that question, we need to increase our knowledge of the verse’s context…
So far I’ve demonstrated that you need to know the WHOLE verse, and read it in context of the WHOLE chapter of the bible in order to truly understand what it means; but there is more. I believe people should also know the WHOLE book of the bible and the WHOLE culture in which the book of the bible was originally written. This will help people see the relevance of the bible in today’s culture, and it will prevent the bible from being misapplied.
So, why did Paul instruct his readers that they could eat meat? Because Paul needed to help new Christians learn how to live in a way that honored God. The non-believers in Corinth worshiped a lot of different “gods,” and sometimes sacrificed meat to honor these idols. The non-believers then invited Christians to their homes and served meat which had been sacrificed. The Corinthian Christians were confused, because the bible is clear that believers should only worship the true God, although they wondered what to do if a non-believer offered them idol meat for diner. Paul is telling Christians that they can eat the meat (everything is permissible) unless the non-believers think the Christians are worshiping the false “gods” with them (not beneficial).
We notice two things by looking at this passage in context to the chapter and the culture. First, God doesn’t want His people to sin, because sin destroys life and the beauty of creation. Secondly, God doesn’t want Christians to worship idols, nor put themselves in positions where non-believers assume we are worshiping them.
I can’t believe the difference it makes to understand God. It’s so much more helpful.
Although it’s great to have God’s word written down for us, we still need to increase our knowledge of the context. Without understanding the true meaning, we become susceptible to harming ourselves and others. In my next blog, I hope to write the missing context which I think I’m most prone to neglecting.
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